Vibroplex Lightning Bug: adjustments and cleaning contacts

[NK6Q]

Really a very strange thread.  I have six bugs and none will get below 20-25 WPM speed without a bug tamer. Also, the ham didn't know that adjusting the rear weight affects the speed.  Pretty basic bug knowledge if you ask me.

I'd love to see a photo of his "bug" to determine what the heck he's talking about.

Bill in Pasadena
NK6Q

[N6GND]

This doesn't sound like a Vibroplex Lightning (which I have). The pendulum on a Lightning is not a round shaft but a flat bar.

I am aware that some of the more expensive Vibroplexes have adjustable flat pendulum springs (the pendulum spring is fastened to the pendulum arm with screws rather than rivets).

It may be that this bug has a loose, improperly-adjusted or damaged pendulum spring which could account for the odd behavior.

It would be useful to see a photo of this bug. Possibly it's an alien from another galaxy where gravity pushes up and dots are dashes and dashes dots.

[W3HKK]

Is the weight on your bugs the same size as mine?  see above. 

when I  count wpm its based on sending dots and dashes, five characters per word.  So yes dot speed is really flying, as I noted before.  But the sum of dot and dash times = wpm.

[K3STX]

Let's make sure we are all talking about the same thing!! As we see in this (not so nice) Lightning bug, the weight is SQUARE, not round.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE1928-VIBROPLEX-BUG-TELEGRAPH-KEY-MORSE-CODE-CASE-/110655170246?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c38fe6c6

The "wpm" is based on the speed of the DITS. Of course with a bug you can have 40 wpm dits with 10 wpm dahs, giving you "something" like 20 wpm that is nearly impossible to copy.

If your dits are 27 wpm dits, then your CODE should be 27 wpm when you send it (check the speed of your dits with your electronic keyer). Is this what you are talking about? When the keyer is set for 25 wpm, the dits are 25 wpm and you are also REALLY sending the word PARIS about 25 times in one minute.

paul

[W3HKK]

The dits really fly with the  wt removed...probably around 45-50 "wpm." It's almost a blur.

WPM sending speed on my bug is what Im referring to.  ie dits plus dahs = one character and 5 characters= 1 wpm.
Never really thought about dits only as equivalent to wpm.  Sorry if I wasnt clear enough.

So , real sending speed is 12-23 wpm depending on the wt setting.    Im still  surprised thats all I can do these days, despite copying much faster in my head.  But that  must be old age for you.

Bob, 69 and counting.

[K3STX]

OK, so I suspect we are taking about different kinds of "wpm", maybe your bug is no different than all of ours!!

I think 1 "word" that is used as the "standard" is the word PARIS; how many times you send that word in one minute is the number of words per minute.

But if your bug is sending 25 wpm "dits" (based on how they sound compared to a keyer sending dits at a known "25 wpm") you are in the same ballpark as the rest of us ol' Lightning bug users.

paul

[WA2WMR]

Are you trying to go faster or slower. If you are trying to go faster, your problem seems to be with your dahs. I think we all tend to make them too long. What I do from time to time is get on the keyer and try to manually key the dahs and match the dahs coming out of the keyer. If I'm going too slow, I get more than one dah. If I go too fast (very rare) the keyer will still be sending when I get off the dah side of the paddles.

If you want to slow the dits down to match you dahs, add more weight or lengthen the arm. I used a vari-speed on my Blue Racer, but extended it straight out through the snubber instead of pointing it up as is designed. I believe this item is available for both round arms and flat arms. I was able to get the speed way down to the point where it would just barely be able to get out 5 dits with just one of the light weights. Wouldn't normally use it that slowly, but that is how slow as I could get it to go - my guess is 3 or 4 WPM.